Renaud Joannes-Boyau is an associate professor at Southern Cross University in Australia. He is a geochronologist and a geochemist, and heads the Geoarchaeology and Archaeometry Research Group at Southern Cross University. His research focuses on the development and application of direct dating methods and micro-analytical techniques to key questions in the archaeological sciences, such as the timing of human evolution, hominid ecological niche, diet, and early life history. Joannes-Boyau has dated key fossils, including early Homo sapiens from Jebel Irhoud, and created geochemical imaging of Neanderthals breastfeeding and other early life reconstructions of hominins.